Travel Holdings, Inc., Announces Strong Financial Results for 2009

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- While much of the travel industry spent the last year working to recover from a down economy, Travel Holdings, Inc., continued to experience tremendous growth. The global wholesale travel brokerage company today announced its financial results for 2009, further establishing itself as a broker capable of delivering positive revenue results for its hotelier partners.

The company's financial results for 2009 included the following:

• A 16 percent increase in the total number of room nights booked over 2008
• A 2 percent increase in top line revenue
• A 23 percent increase in employee base, adding 106 new professionals to its staff worldwide
• 2.5 million travel customers
• An average of 43 travel searches per second on the company's servers
• An investment of $5 million in its technology, as the company has done for each of the last several years

Additionally, Travel Holdings delivered an average of $8.3 million per month to the hotel companies it partners with to provide deep discounts to travelers who book via the company's online properties, TouricoHolidays.com, LastMinuteTravel.com and EasyClickTravel.com.

"Last year, while other companies made major structural downsizings due to their shrinking top lines, we were not only able to maintain our previous year's top lines, but actually grew them by 2 percent," states Bob Fischer, CFO for Travel Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Tourico Holidays, LastMinuteTravel.com and EasyClickTravel.com.  "We also increased our total number of room nights by 16 percent and increased our employee base by 23 percent, while maintaining a healthy EBITDA, which is unheard-of in 2009, especially in the travel sector.  When it comes to discretionary expenses, our philosophy continues to run 'lean and mean,' implementing automation wherever possible to maintain a low cost per transaction and continued development of sophisticated data mining tools, as well as yield management automation to be utilized as our crystal ball to success.  In our ever-changing environment, we have found the secret formula to achieving growth complemented by profits."

The company is looking ahead to an even more robust set of results for 2010, as it is projecting to finish the year with $500 million in top-line revenue while providing travel services to more than 3.5 million consumers – which would mark a 40 percent increase in that number from 2009.

About Travel Holdings®

Travel Holdings, Inc.® (www.travelholdings.com), one of the most distinctive and expansive travel distribution companies in the world, was created in early 2004 through the merger of Tourico Holidays®, Last Minute Travel™ and Travel Global Systems (TGS). Travel Holdings® uses proprietary technology to supply travel inventory at competitive pricing, integrating with all segments of the online travel industry including retail, wholesale, group, travel agents, corporate and affiliates. The company is a truly global organization with headquarters in Orlando and additional, local offices across the United States, South America, Europe and Asia.

SOURCE Travel Holdings, Inc.